In fact, she wished she didn’t have to be here at all, but in the circumstances of her having dinner with Jude this evening she really needed to know what he knew.
‘It’s raining outside,’ she dismissed uninterestedly. ‘And I repeat, what did you tell Jude last night?’
‘You know, May,’ April said consideringly, her head tilted to one side, ‘your manners were better at five years old than they are now!’
May felt the warmth of colour enter her cheeks, the barb hitting home in spite of herself. She had been brought up with impeccable manners—they all had; they just seemed to have gone out of the window since the advent of Jude Marshall and April Robine into her life.
‘When Reception informed me you were waiting to see me downstairs, I ordered coffee for us both. Thank you.’ April turned to smile at the waitress as she arrived with the coffee tray. ‘I hope you don’t mind?’ she prompted May lightly as she sat forward to pour the aromatic brew.
‘You go ahead,’ May invited stiffly once they were alone again. ‘I had a coffee before leaving home.’ And she certainly hadn’t come here to spend a sociable half-hour with this woman.
‘It won’t choke you to have coffee with me, you know, May,’ April said tautly, eyes flashing deeply green.
May gave a barely perceptible shake of her head as she recognised that angry characteristic in the other woman as one of her own. In fact, apart from the length of their hair, and the obvious difference in their ages, the similarities between the two women were so noticeable, to May at least, that she was surprised no one else—namely David or Jude—had put two and two together and come up with the appropriate answer of four.
But it was only a matter of time…
‘That’s a matter of opinion,’ she snapped dismissively. ‘I only want to know—’
‘What I told Jude last night,’ April finished dryly. ‘And my answer to that is, why should I have told Jude anything, last night or any other time?’
This wasn’t going to be as easy as she had thought it would be, May realised heavily. The last thing she had wanted to do was come here and talk to this woman at all, but she really had felt that she had no choice in the matter; Jude was already far too superior in his manner for her liking—if April were to tell him of their family connection then the whole situation would become unbearable.
As it was May had found it very difficult to continue to act normally with her two sisters and their fiancés after Jude’s departure the previous evening, knowing Jude was intelligent enough to realise that if she wouldn’t give him any answers to his questions his only other source of information was April…
She gave an impatient movement of her hand. ‘Because Jude knows there’s something going on—he just doesn’t know what it is. At least, he didn’t…’ she added pointedly.
April poured coffee into the second cup, adding the cream before placing it on the table in front of May. ‘I take it you still don’t like sugar in hot drinks?’ she prompted huskily.
No, she still didn’t like sugar in hot drinks—but it was completely disturbing to realise that this woman remembered her well enough to know that…!
‘Miss Robine—’
‘April,’ the older woman cut in tersely. ‘If you can’t call me anything else, then call me April,’ she added firmly as May looked at her frowningly.
Call her anything else…? What sort of ‘anything else’ did the other woman have in mind? Surely not ‘Mother’.
May nodded abruptly. ‘April,’ she ground out tersely. ‘I don’t want any coffee. I don’t want to exchange polite pleasantries. I just want—’
‘To know what I said to Jude last night,’ the other woman repeated heavily. ‘But as I haven’t seen Jude since we all met at the farm together yesterday evening, I have no idea why you think I have told him anything.’
May’s eyes widened. April hadn’t seen Jude again last night…? Could Jude possibly be telling the truth when he denied having any sort of intimate relationship with the beautiful actress? It was incredible if that really were the case, but as they both denied that such a relationship existed—
What difference did it make in the huge scheme of things? Jude’s friendship with April alone was enough to make him a danger to the harmony of her family.
Although May couldn’t deny the small surge of warmth inside her at the knowledge that the man she loved wasn’t involved with the woman who had been her mother. Not that she thought her own feelings for him were going anywhere, either, but it would make those feelings unbearable if she knew he was intimately involved with April.
‘Did something happen, May?’ April prompted frowningly. ‘Have you and Jude argued—?’
‘Jude and I have done nothing but argue since the moment we first met. In fact, before we first met.’ She grimaced.
‘Explain that last remark, please.’ April frowned.
May sighed. What difference did it make if April knew about the farm? It was absolutely none of this woman’s business, but at the same time it really didn’t matter if she knew; April’s own interest in the farm—if she had ever had one—had ended long ago.
May shrugged. ‘Jude wants to buy the farm.’
April looked surprised. ‘What on earth for?’